So after umming and aaaahing whilst collecting parts for my '59 rag over the last 6 months I found that I was lacking in some focus and drive.
I've owned over 35 cars in the 14 years i've had my licence, had cars in magazines, shows etc etc so when I get into a project, I get through it quick and there's no messing about, so I couldn't understand why I couldn't get really into my rag this year.
After much forum surving, 'The Day Of VW' last year and meeting up with a few of the Luft boys over the last few months I worked out that i've really been lusting over an early oval.
About 2 months ago I started doing some research and settled on a '54 model year and commenced my passive search. Finally I came across one with the right credentials on ebay, right location and 3 days of negotiating resulted in a trip to Geelong on Monday just past.
The vendors starting bid of $6500 was more than I wanted to spend but after he relisted it 3 times over 2 months without much luck and a few sale fall throughs I came along and nailed the seller to the boards with careful negotiating and I picked her up for a steal (with an old flat screen LCD TV that we no longer needed used as a bargaining chip) and sealed the deal around midday Monday.
Armed with a mates turbo diesel Navara we set off to pick her up before someone could bid from under me, because as you all know, no matter what is said verbally, it ain't yours till the keys are in your hand!
The pics below tell the story! Saddled up and ready to head home:
Finally home, drove it from the street down the driveway to its new berth next to Berg the Rag '59:
Chillin'
The rag has been spoken for as of last night, and the new owner should be picking him up on Thursday.
As soon as I return from overseas in May, I will get straight into the oval with gusto!
PASHN8 ·
Update time 🙂
So we have finally launched the Oval resto officially as of the weekend! We moved the car from its storage and sent it to my Dad's garage where we have a double garage of space for the next two months, so we have to work smooth and quick.
Saturday and I managed to spend 2 hours on the Oval, but I made sure that it was as productive.
Everything went pretty smoothly bar the door hinges, lots of rusty door hinge screws that even gentle manipulation with a impact driver can't seem to budge 🙁 Fun times ahead no doubt!
Plenty of WD40 on all the pan bolts before I left to soak overnight, hopefully not too much drama to undo.
As he sits at 6pm today:
The pics tell the story 🙂
Lots of old sound deadening, fun times to be had there!
Finally, body off after what seemed like a long time judging by the pan seal and rusted condition of the pan bolts. Didn't break any though, but some came close:
Beam and front end removed:
Ye Olde 36HP anchor
All the bits and pieces
Bare pan
Body pushed out onto the driveway waiting for the towie
Loaded up and ready to head to the sand blasters
Finally dropped off at the blasters ready for paint stripping
Been a good couple of weekends but glad its finally well on its way. Once blasted, body and parts will be 2k etch primed and delivered to my panel beaters for rust repair and painting 🙂
Hopefully there will still be some metal left after blasting!
PASHN8 ·
Now one interesting thing that I found when I removed the motor, was evidence of what I think could have been an exploding flywheel or clutch assembly at some point in its life.
These pics show circular shape scoring marks on the inside of the bellhousing and one piece actually has punched a hole through the metal of bellhousing leaving a small and jagged hole.
I've loaded fairly large pics to show detail, so i'll use thumbnails to make it friendlier (simply click on the thumbnail, then click it again when it loads on the imageshack page to view it in full size):
Car drove fine before I pulled it apart, so i'm assuming it happened previously. Is it something to worry about? I'm guessing it won't affect future operation of the clutch, and I could just get the hole welded, ground down and forget it ever happened, but I thought i'd mention it in case anyone had any other ideas or suggestions.
ian.mezz ·
is that a 12volts starter motor ???
I would put a newer gear box in it to make it nicer to drive with out having to crunch in first all the time.
Aussie ·
Looks a nice project base there. What are your plans - stock resto or other.......
Cheers, Ian
dangerous ·
Yeah someone has clearanced your bell housing with a grinder.
12 volt ring gear may have been used at some point, (perhaps still)
and is larger in diameter than the original 6 Volt one.
Starter has to be changed too, and may still be a 12V one also.
PASHN8 ·
Well have been busy with work so haven't had a chance to update this thread with new pics, but will keep them regular from now on 🙂
Body, hang on's, and pan have been blasted and 2k etched in January, some pics below.
The pan was almost perfect, no holes in the halves, slight pitted on them, but nothing major at all, very strange considering the lower inch of the Oval is rusted right round!
Lower firewall area on body, heater channels, under seat supports, rear apron, front tyre well and front right inner guard. The front right inner guard was the worst, and have had a dodgy repair from a previous accidents, as was some filler in the rear drivers quarter.
Upper half is great, with slight pin holes in oval window area and lower windscreen corners.
All in all i'm fairly happy with what was under the paint, but now the fun (and $$$) begins!
When we arrived to pick him up:
Locked and loaded:
In transit:
Landed at my panel shop:
PASHN8 ·
Fast forward to the end of Jan and work has well and truly started on sorting the body, as the pan won't require much at all.
First off, tackling the front inner driver side guard which was going to prove a lot of work straightening out the creases, folds and hits.
The decision was made to try and find some clean straight OG metal in the form of a donor oval front clip, which was kindly supplied by Rick, thanks mate 🙂
Front clip was sent to the blasters and seems to be fairly good, especially in the wheel well area that we needed with no previous accident damage and minimal rust in the required area.
New rear apron, front apron, spare wheel well, rear quarters, under seat supports and j-tubes were sourced from Woffe at http://wolfparts.com/ who was absolutely stellar to deal with, and whilst not the cheapest of repro metal available, certainly from all accounts the best repro quality from the extensive research I did both on The Samba and also speaking to other Aussies who had used him metal. Even my panel beater was impressed with how solid and well formed the pieces were.
New rear apron and quarters fitted, inner side engine trays from Autocraft and you can just see the KlassicFab early Oval heater channels on the ground ready to fit:
My panel beaters sense of humour:
Dodgy front drivers quarter removed ready for straight OG metal donor:
Door/shell supports were welded in place before heater channels were replaced:
h ·
wow great work!
keep going 😉
1916baja ·
Damn thats a serious resto! that "ye old 36 hp motor" looks like a "ye new 36 hp motor"....
DUZNGO ·
Looking good D!!
Cant wait to see the next round of updates.
Flintstones ·
That looks familiar😵💫
A rotisserie just makes all the difference
Cheers
D
DieSchnelleKafer ·
woa, when i first saw this car i thought "damn wish mine was as good as that". it goes to show what a blast will do to a car!
Turbo54 ·
Nice project Dino. I know exactly where your at with yours. I have just bought quarters, Jtubes and rear apron from wolf also. Just waiting for them to arrive.
When removing my rear clip I uncovered bad repairs and a vast amount of filler in a very bashed apron.
Glad to see the panels are good quality, they cost enough!
Keep it moving.
T54
Dasdubber ·
Good to see the progress is continuing Dinesh, glad to see the Klassic Fab heater channels got there okay.
Give us a call when you are back in town
Cheers
Al (DAS Resto Parts)
PASHN8 ·
Update time:
So all this time I thought I had a late 36HP engine going off the small nut pulley and a couple of minor details and had been keeping an eye out for a decent early big nut 36HP in the matching date range of my Sept '54 built Oval.
One thing i'd never done is actually check my engine number to see what year the block was (just figured small nut = late model motor) and did so today.
It turns out that my motor is actually a late-ish August 1954 engine (numbers are last build in the month) in my September '54 body!
You can imagine how happy I was to learn that the engine I have could very well be the original motor as it is period correct 🙂
Some detail pics:
Thanks to a few of the Melburg Luft fellas, they have pieced together the good and the bad with what items i'll need to make it perfectly period correct.
These include:
Generator pulley & nut (54/55 pulleys haven't got those two tabs that stick through)
Round voltage regulator
Air filter (could be some discussion here: I think the type I have are for the 56 year model & maybe 57 year model)
Coil and coil bracket
Oil filler should be the slip on type with a hold down clip.
Turbo54 ·
Hey Dino, good news with the engine number. I have one of he 54 oil breathers that I am using on my turbo motor for a bit of period fun. I don't have the spring clip that holds it down. If you hear of someone making them or someone who has a spare please let me know. I will have a look through my spares, I think I have a 54 filter somewhere.
T54
PASHN8 ·
Some more progress pics of the body with various repairs done using new sheet metal from Wolf Parts in Sweden and KlassicFab early heater channels:
Still a long way to go but great to see progress nonetheless! 🙂
PASHN8 ·
Some pics of the floor pan progress from April, which brings us up to date finally🙂
PASHN8 ·
So whilst enduring my long and painful wait for my body work to be completed I thought i'd treat myself
to something i've wanted for quite a while, after long negotiations on price and handing over some folding,
this arrived today!
Specs on my kit:
- Fully rebuilt Compressor with new George Folchi Vanes
- New top and Bottom Pulley as well as cover plate
- New Air Cleaner
- New High Pressure spring for the std fuel pump
- New main jet
- Fully rebuilt as new 28pict carby with Accelerator Cable linkage for Judson
- As New Judson Magneto
- New Old Stock Marvel Oiler and feeder line
- New Belts
- New Badge
To say i'm excited is an understatement 🙂
vassy66T1 ·
Very cool!
I am looking forward to seeing this one come together
JohnnyMac ·
Hi Dino, love the car mate. Looks like it will be a great build. I bought Calcools 55, wish I could have taken the Judson too but the wallet didn't stretch that far. Good luck with the progress.
Cheers,
John.
Ollie ·
Mmmmmhmmmmmmm, loving this
BUGBOY ·
Crack that whip mate get those boys sanding. Looks like its coming along nicely.
PASHN8 ·
Small update for July 2012:
Picked up this NOS Fram F3-P with box from Oliver in EU.
Will have to organise Judson friendly oil lines and cooler from Stephane.
69bug ·
👍
PASHN8 ·
Small update 🙂
Both heater channels are done, so lower 2 inches of the car all sports fresh metal courtesy of KlassicFab & Wolf parts.
No filler anywhere yet and all the metal is pretty damn smooth and in shape nicely, so should only be skim coats used before paint.
One thing i've always lusted after were a set of the original Airevo 17" radars I saw on the Samba, but the price was always too much for the pocket at around 950Euro a set, NOT including postage from Belgium where the manufacturer is.
Fast forward to a month ago, and 3 weeks of emails back and forth between Mr Airevo himself, Leslie Aerts the last two new sets of polished Airevo 17" radars in his stockpile left Begium on a ship.
I was stoked as they are not going to produce them anymore, and grabbed the last sets at an amazing price I couldn't refuse.
He also mentioned they are the only sets he's ever sent to Australia, so its nice to have something that isn't common (which has always been a bit of an obsession for me) and will fit nicely.
The quality of them is amazing, and I compared them to a friends CIP style radars and they are like chalk and cheese.
17" x 7" ET20 which allows Oval fitment without spacers/or axle extensions in the rear seals the deal!
Same wheels:
A quest for perfection has pushed me to really try and make this Oval something special that I can be proud of and do it once, and do it right 🙂 Starting to get a little excited now!
PASHN8 ·
Another update for the followers of my build thread.
I have ordered a new 3-fold rag top kit from John Alba at www.vwsunroofs.com for my '54 after plenty of research, looking forward to its arrival in November to complete my build! Pics to come!
PASHN8 ·
So it's been a while between drinks and a lot has happened in the last 3 months.
In short, I went overseas for a few weeks, got engaged and bought a new house with the lady.
We settled on Nov 2nd, and I have been working on the house ever since painting, patching, etc etc.
But, I have been keeping an eye on progress and also collecting more parts for the assembly stage 🙂
It's coming together very nicely and there is a light at the end of the tunnel which is great.
Some goodies i've collected in anticipation:
- CB Performance 2.5" dropped front disc kit (wide 5)
- CB Performance wide 5 rear disc kit
- Wolfsburg West triple chrome blade bumpers front and rear:
RHD Cruiser pedal (thanks D-train!):
Also a fully restored September '54 VDO speedo from Thorsten @ vw-museum (http://120kph.twoday.net/) who i've dealt with previously and does amazing work.
My 3-fold sunroof is also finished and will be shipping shortly. Owner, John Alba of Grumpy's Metal has been fantastic to deal with over the last 3 months -(www.vwsunroofs.com)[/b] and i'm looking forward to seeing it in the metal!
The colour will be L227 Strato Silver and i've ordered a blue stayfast canvas sunroof top, with gray headliner inside.
I'd really like to find a set of OG early Oval pop-outs, but they are rare as hens teeth and just as expensive!
The difference between split/early oval pop-outs, and later pops are:
Split and early oval Beetle (pre mid 55) is the rare flat frame as pictured here:
The ribbed frame came later, which is the more common one to see and find:
Aussie ·
That is a great colour you have chosen. 🙅
XXX-1.8T ·
Cant wait till its finished!
empi ·
So..... is it done yet???
PASHN8 ·
empi wrote:So..... is it done yet???
HA! (Will swap for a mint anthracite KG 😉)
PASHN8 ·
Update time:
Bodywork coming along slowly:
PASHN8 ·
Took LJ's advice, and decided to cut and reinforce the clutch tube 🙂
Big thanks goes out to LJ also for my constant picture messaging that day asking his advice on what I saw, as i'd never done this sort of repair before, so I owe you one big fella!
Looked pretty good, with no movement in the tube:
Decided to reinforce it anyway using a correctly sized washer welded to the bracket:
Made sure there was going to be no weld getting into the clutch tube:
LJ also advised doing the rear whilst were were in there, so cut we did!
Was trying to think of a way to brace the tube in a solid way, and dug out one of our old curtain rod holders from home:
Screwed in place:
Welded with a tack on the screw head to make sure it can't back out:
Time to close up:
PASHN8 ·
Not long after, a large box arrived at my office with VWSunroofs stamped proudly on the outside.
4 months of anticipation was present, so it was time to take it to the panel shop and unbox this bad boy! It literally took up the entire rear of the R36 wagon and 'just' fit in!
Who's a happy lad? 🙂
Christmas come early:
I tell you what, it really is a thing of beauty! Considering John Alba of Grumpys Metal in Huntington Beach, CA (www.vwsunroofs.com) makes each of these kits including the opening from scratch, it really is a credit to him:
PASHN8 ·
The scary part of having the kit finally here, was that I had to actually man up and cut a hole in the roof of the '54.
We laid the opening out on the roof skin and measured a million + 1 times and masked as we went. I wanted to make sure that we would nail it the first time considering i've never done something this before.
The other thing was I wanted to replicate the factory procedure for a factory finish, and with John Alba's kit being completely interchangeable with a factory 3-fold, made sense to get it right!
Once we were satisfied with the markings, Paulie picked up the grinder asking me one last time if I was happy with the measurements. This moment consisted of puckerage-a-plenty!
Rounding the edges with some tin snips:
It's amazing just how much the roof skin moves up and down once you cut and also equally amazing as to how big a 3-fold cut out actually is!
PASHN8 ·
First thing we did was get the opening in and c-clamped up to check where we were at with the welding side of things:
Once we were happy with the fit, the car was then taken to another panel shop owned by a friend of mine in Moorabbin (MiColour) where they have a spot welder to weld the roof opening in.
There were a few ideas thrown around, like slow MIG'ing from one side to another to keep the skin cool, Fuzor metal bonding the skin and others.
After speaking at length to John Alba I decided I wanted to continue the factory look installation and go with spot-welding.
Prior to '55, this is how VW fitted 3-fold's to the oval beetles as there was no factory shelled sunroof beetle.
This meant normal beetle shells had holes cut in them the same way, and had the openings spot welded in from factory the same way we were doing ours.
Of course the later 2-folds weren't done this way, hence why they have corner reinforcing in the roof turrets etc and are actually harder to graft convincingly.
Up on a trailer and off we went to MiColour:
Cleaning up the opening:
A few hours later it was spot-welded in:
PASHN8 ·
The pan was finished and sprayed in a semi-gloss black and picked up to take back home.
It's funny how it's just a piece of metal, but it really marked a turning point in the build, and I started to feel like we were cresting the peak of he hill and on the downhill run 🙂
The pan set up on stands in my workshop ready for assembly 🙂🙂🙂
New DOM beam with OE german leaves, OE german trailing arms and grease zerks fitted, complete with bugpack bushes.
PASHN8 ·
Fast forward to present day (finally!) 🙂
Old roller pedal assembly laid out and sent off to Scott @ PedalWerks for a full restoration and revamp:
Body as it sits now ready for final adjustment and blocking.
I can't believe after 2 years it's almost ready to see colour!
PASHN8 ·
JNR356 (thanks Mark!) was kind enough to give my beam the once over and fitted up my CB Performance 2.5 drop spindles with new german king and links all shimmed up nice and tight! 🙂
Big thanks to Ol for the spindle carriers which I didn't have!
I then fitted the beam up to the pan to get the ball rolling to get this baby on the ground:
Empi oil filled shocks fitted up front as recommended by JnR:
CB Performance Wide 5 front disc kit fitted up with new bearings:
Couldn't resist to bolt on a couple of Escra's i've had waiting patiently for my Splitty to visualise! 🙂🙂
Flintstones ·
That looks great Dino 👍
It takes some balls to cut a hole in the roof, I remember when I did mine!
Cheers
D
snitz ·
Love the oval..very nice project.I hope you have a good run with your toyo Proxes4 tyres.I ran them on a car and was very dissappointed..they wore out quickly and were quite noisy.Just a heads up 😎
pfillery ·
If you don't mind, how exxy is a sunroof kit like the one you got? Including shipping which would be painful? Just curious since I've seen $1000+ asked for Golde roof clips with no canvas left, how do they compare new?
Dirty Den ·
My first post here and all I can say is got to love Dub Porn!
vw40hp ·
pfillery wrote:If you don't mind, how exxy is a sunroof kit like the one you got? Including shipping which would be painful? Just curious since I've seen $1000+ asked for Golde roof clips with no canvas left, how do they compare new?
Mr Bubble Head wrote:Dino nice job it's looking good 😉
Keep it up your reinspiring me ........
Yeah Dinos resto is taking almost the same amount of time as yr car Nick..... naaa thats not true..... nothing could take that long!!😂
PASHN8 ·
UPDATE for July 2013:
It's been a steady stream of boxes coming from all over Australia and the world with all sorts of goodies which has been like Christmas in July.
My batwing came back from Koch's in the US looking like new and i'm stoked at the finish, and color match:
Carpet choice has been fun, and came down to Oatmeal and Honey Brown in German Square Weave, and since Honey Brown was the matching carpet for L227 Strato Silver, i've decided on that:
I'll set it up as factory with the carpet edges and the correct black rubber mates for the floor to keep it fairly OG inside.
The OG splitcase gearbox was delivered to ACME in a sorry state, going in for a full clean up, new mounts, new bearings and cosmetic makeover.
JNR was also kind enough to get the Pirate to rebuild my 12V starter and 12V genny which will be assisting the 12V conversion on the 36er.
One cool detail was date stamped 1954 brake drums that came off the splitcase, so I guess it might have been a low mileage car, and considering that it hasn't been registered since 1979, could be the case.
Pan is coming along slowly but surely. Being busy with work doesn't allow me much time in the Man Cave, but I squeeze in an hour here and there when I can, but some progress is better than none! 🙂
After what seems like eternity, the body is now in guide coat and being blocked. I got a trade price on the Glasurit materials needed to paint the thing and that wasn't pleasant, but it's an all or nothing build, so no point skimping now.
Some pics:
shaven ·
bloody BEautIFuL Dino👍
spamwell ·
incredible
STZR ·
Love what you've done Dino 🙂
update? 😂
Craig Torrens ·
👍👍👍
PASHN8 ·
Time for an update and I apologize for the time between drinks. Work and the house has been taking up a lot of my time, but I have been chipping away at progress.
Last I mentioned I sent my split case box to Mark K (JNR356) for a tear down, inspection and rebuild, along with rebuild of my 12v starter and 12v genny and what a job he did!
The case was media blasted by John W (IN2VWS), who also did a cracking job at short notice.
JnR's fine work:
Re-assembled with all new rubbers, seals, wheel bearings, clear coated outer case, new oil and CB wide 5 disc brakes fitted:
Back at home:
OG springplates removed. Yes I would have liked the torsion bars to have stayed in, but no matter what I did, they wouldn't budge:
Gearbox going in with some JerFab 2.5" drop plates sitting on the floor:
Motor tins removed for a basic clean:
Panel shop movement is almost done and here are some of the hang ons:
My honey brown german square weave kit arrived from Newton's finally also, and it looks great!
And by ABSOLUTE chance, the manufacturer of Airevo wheels in Belgium was in touch to see if i'd fitted the polished set of 17" wheels I imported from him a couple of years ago and I told him I sold them, much to my regret.
He then mentioned by coincidence that a wheel shop in Europe had closed down, and they had returned to him TWO sets of 17" Airevo wheels the same as what I had bought from him previously, but this time they were CHROME sets.
Needless to say, along came another 2 month wait whilst they were shipped from Belgium!
8)
Fast forward to today, and we're expecting a delivery from Glasurit of all paint materials to paint this beast as planned in L227 Strato Silver 😀
The plan is for Damo to lay color on the shell on the Australia Day long weekend, so it's going to be some sleepless nights waiting for the result after THREE years!
oldturtle22 ·
Wow, looks amazing mate!!!
PASHN8 ·
Thanks all 🙂
Some goodies turned up today, starting to feel real!
crsedge ·
Nice one mate!
Looks like it will be a Happy Australia Day (weekend) for you! 😎
Cheers
Craig
STOCK ·
awesome build so far
great attention to detail mate
cant wait to see it finished
keep up the great work
PASHN8 ·
So yesterday Damo (damoyouknow) and I planned to spend some time in the shop and get things moving.
Plan was to rub down and mask the hang ons and get the underneath in paint, sound deaden the rear seat/firewall area and seam seal the same, and under bonnet.
7am start was in order and we managed to get everything done to plan with Damo flying through the day.
I decided to stop being a slacker and take some decent pics instead of being lazy with my iphone :oops:
The shell moved out of the booth so we could gain better access:
Spray on sound deadener applied:
Seam sealing:
Masking up:
Bit of extra 2k primer:
Mixing up the base coat of Glasurit L227 Strato Silver:
Second coat of 109 clear applied to basecoat. These pics do NOT do the finish justice, I was in awe of the result at this stage, and can only imaging what the outside an shell will look like:
It is a beautiful color and very underrated, and i'm not sure why we don't see more Strato bugs in Australia and i'm extremely happy I chose it all those months ago.
Monday we head back into the booth to paint the outside of the hood, engine lid and guards, and also hang ons.
We've got a few little things that we want to tweak on the body shell, so they will be done during the week, with the plan to paint the body shell inside and out next weekend. Exciting times! 8)
Huge thanks go to Willy from Tropic Motors for being so accommodating of us and massive thanks to Damo for his hard work and attention to detail.
crsedge ·
Looks great Dino! Bet there also aren't many 356As painted in that colour either- a matching set perhaps? 😉
Craig
PASHN8 ·
So today, we were back in the shop at 7am and getting ready to do the outside of the hang on panels.
Damo fine tuned a few very minor spots here and there that he wasn't 100% happy with and gave them a light rub and prepsol.
Primed and ready for base coat:
Base coat:
Finally it was clear coat time! I'll let the below pics do the talking!
Shell to be done this coming weekend, inside and out 😀😀
vassy66T1 ·
Sweet as a nut!!!
I think that it is one of the most gorgeous VW original colours of the day.
STOCK ·
one word wow👍
baghall ·
Love this thread. It is looking great!👍👍👍
zayus ·
Love your photography.
jobie ·
Hey Dino,
Any updates on this thing?
'when I get into a project, I get through it quick and there's no messing about'
PASHN8 ·
Thanks lads 🙂 Have just been acquiring and restoring other small bits and pieces, nothing particularly exciting, but I should get some pics of it sitting on the pan 😉
